The
following are random samples of ACTUAL dog fight busts. From them, you can get a feel for the true character and activities of the people involved.

Quite different from the fiction spun by pro-dog fighters. These are not "hard working average Joes". These are criminals of the lowest kind.

Due to the sheer number, I have edited them down to the basic facts:

TOLEDO,
Ohio  Deputies looking for marijuana plants found a
dog-fighting operation, stolen cars and two alligators on
a farm outside the city. Otha
Lawrence Jones, Jr., 29, of Toledo was charged with five felony
counts of dog-fighting, sheriff's Lt. Donald Atkinson said
Friday. Mr. Jones also was charged with a weapons violation. During a routine helicopter search on Thursday, Lucas County
sheriff's deputies saw marijuana plants on the farm. After
landing to take a closer look, deputies discovered a building
with 10 pit bulls inside,
Lt. Atkinson said. Additional charges could be filed.

Inside
the old greenhouse, on the back acre at a private home, was
a crowd of roughly 75  all male, mostly white, mostly
what Bobby calls a redneck bunch. They drank beer, smoked dope,
maybe did a few lines of cocaine. "Two guys in monkey suits
were the coke men," Bobby said of a pair of drug dealers
in fancy clothes. "And some guy was selling that date-rape
drug"  a bag of five pills for $50. Drugs flourish
in the dog-fighting culture, in part because dealers often keep
vicious dogs for protection, in part because of a general party
atmosphere around the ring. It also may have something to do
with the amount of cash on hand. Last summer, animal cruelty
officers in Palm Beach County had their biggest dog-fighting
bust ever  60 arrests, 12 dogs, $89,000 in cash and an
unspecified amount of drugs seized in a suburban neighborhood
in West Palm Beach. Naples Daily News

Two young men try and force young pups to fight.
They just can't wait for the fun to start.

Police
seize drug paraphernalia and a stolen firearm from site of
arrests. In addition to four pit bulls, Fort Walton Beach
police officers seized a stolen firearm and drug paraphernalia from a townhouse on Hollywood Boulevard where a group of men
were arrested on dogfighting charges Tuesday night. "This
was a textbook dogfighting case," said Dee Thompson,
executive director of the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.
"When you find people who are dogfighting, the guns and
drugs are usually there, too. They all seem to go hand in
hand." Shomari Nnander Minter-Smith,22, faces the most serious charges in connection with the
raid of his home at 421 N.W. Hollywood Blvd. Minter-Smith,
who had been living in unit F of the building, was charged
with fighting or baiting animals, grand theft of a firearm,
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession
of drug paraphernalia. Northwest Florida Daily News

ORANGE
COUNTY, N.C. -- Investigators will meet with Hillsborough police
on Monday to decide what charges should be filed against a father
and son accused of operating a dogfighting ring. Laura Walters of the Animal Protection Society said
the scars and injuries on one dog's body tell a story of countless
dogfights and unspeakable abuse. "He's got scars all over
his body and face and he's missing teeth," she said. "His
leg is unusable, and he has a large wound that's infected." Walters said they were living in deplorable conditions. "There
was no food. One dog had a loaf of moldy bread in front of him
that he wouldn't eat," she said. "The puppies were
shivering and shaking." Investigators plan to charge Jerry
Lee Compton Sr. and his son, Jerry Lee
Compton Jr., with animal cruelty. The dogs were seized
from the Compton house in Hillsborough on Friday. Jerry
Lee Compton Sr. denies the dogs were abused. He said
his son is a breeder.

A fighting dog's leg has been peeled of skin.
This would have brought applause from the crowd.

WAKE
COUNTY, N.C. -- Investigators call dogfighting a breeding
ground for gambling, drugs, violence and bloody entertainment.
WRAL investigates the underground culture and how dogfighting
costs taxpayers and family pets.
Although it is a felony in North Carolina to train dogs to
fight, most offenders get little or no jail time. Last year,
Lee County deputies found a fighting pit, training equipment
and over 100 dogs at Gaston Williamson's home. Williams walked
with only probation, maintaining to this day that he is just
a breeder. Check most shelters around the state and you will
see the scars of dogfighting. The animals are marked for death,
whether killed in the ring or euthanized because they are
raised too violent to adopt. "There's a major expense
of tax dollars that go with this," said Dicke Sloop,
Wake County Animal Control director. Sloop serves on a statewide
task force that is trying to break up the fights. She believes
the problem goes far beyond two bloodied dogs. Take last fall's
arrest of Samson Pruitt in Wake County, for example. Taxpayers
shelled out $27,000 to house 91 confiscated pit bulls for
one month. Most of the dogs were were eventually put to death.
Along with evidence of dogfighting, detectives found drugs and social workersremoved two children from the home.

A fighting dog I rescued from lying in mud
in freezing rain;
no dog house. He is now a much loved rescue dog.

I
have yet to be aware of a dog fighting case which did not involve the lowest form of criminals and showcase the complete
lack of regard for the dog's care as shown above.

There
is no denying that the pit bull reigns supreme as a fighting
dog when raised and encouraged to this occupation, and there
is no denying that selection of the dogs for the traits which
make him a BULLdog make him the tough, honest, gritty dog
we love today. Because of this, the challenge to today's breeders
is to find ways to replicate the rigors of baiting sports
in legal and humane ways. Dog fighters insist this cannot
be done, but the simple truth is that it can and is being
done by those who care enough to do it. Dog fighters argue
that dog fighting is not cruel - that the dogs enjoy the opportunity
to scrap. Yet the legions of mangled rejects who find their way
into shelters and rescues, dogs hung from trees, set on fire
in the street, and otherwise tortured or destroyed for their
unwillingness to fight, testify that many pit bulls would
prefer to live in peace. The dog fighters and their hangers-on
argue that those who oppose fighting use examples of street
punks, not "real deal dog men" when describing the
mentality of those who keep fighting dogs and conditions in
which they are kept. That is why, in Part I, I thought it
would be fair to simply use the words of the "real deal
dogmen" themselves and let THEM describe dog fighting
as it exists today.